Brake systems are actuated, as are clutches, by pedal force with the aid of a pedal system, with the driver, for actuating the brake system, swivelling a pedal lever, thereby inserting an actuating bar into a brake system thus releasing the braking process. Pedal systems of the afore-described type have a large transmission so that a minor displacement of the actuating bar taking place in an axial longitudinal direction corresponds to a substantial angle of displacement of the pedal lever. As in a crash event, the brake units, such as master cylinder or brake force booster, can be substantially displaced, dangerous motions of displacement of the pedal lever are likely to occur. Due to the lever deflection, the driver's foot can, therefore, either be clamped against the baffle plate or guided, due to an uncontrolled deflection, into the bottom area of the vehicle which is rather narrow anyway. A deflection of the afore-described type is dangerous, especially so if the driver due to the impact anyway slips to the front end of the passenger compartment.
It has, therefore, been thought over how to avoid such a swivel movement of the pedal lever in a crash event. According to one suggestion the fact is utilized that in a crash event the actuating bar will cover a particularly large swivel angle vis-a-via the pedal lever. This fact is used to discontinue the connection between actuating bar and pedal lever in that the actuating bar is pushed out of the rotary bearing on the pedal lever, it being suggested to enable the actuating bar to be pushed laterally of the bearing bolt once a predetermined swivel angle is exceeded. To achieve this, the bearing bore of the actuating bar, laterally, is to be provided with an opening of a size sufficient to allow the bearing bolt of the pedal lever to pass the said opening under force.
According to another suggestion the rotary movement of the actuating bar is used to lift the actuating bar from the rotary bearing in a direction axial to the bearing bolt in that a force acting in that direction overcomes the bolt lock.
The conventional locking means encouter the difficulty that, under poor visual conditions, they have to be rapidly and safely mounted in the bottom part of the passenger compartment. An additional disadvantage involved with the state-of-the art systems resides in that one can never tell whether the locking means are really reliably locked.